Starred review from June 20, 2011
In this candid, moving work, Gabrielsson chronicles her life's journey with her longtime companion, Stieg Larsson, the Swedish creator of the Millennium trilogy who died suddenly at age 50, in 2004, before the first volume of his phenomenally successful work (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in English) was even published. Gabrielsson tells that she had little legal recourse in Sweden to claim his literary and intellectual property even though the childless couple had lived together in Stockholm for 30 years and shared passions for science fiction and political activism; they edited and published their joint antifascist, antiracist newsletter, Expo, begun in the mid-1990s, to combat a wave of extreme right-wing militancy in Sweden. The rights to Larsson's literary trilogy fell posthumously to his father and brother, who shut Gabrielsson out. Gabrielsson writes about their similarities: both came from simple farm people, abandoned as children by their parents to be raised largely by grandparents; they met at a student antiâVietnam War meeting in 1972 and together moved through leftist movements to find meaningful work, Larsson at the Swedish news agency TT, and Gabrielsson as an architect. Much of their political engagement and feminism is reflected in the Millennium books, the writing of which developed much later in Larsson's careerâas Gabrielsson, evidently the person who understood him as few did, warmly, lovingly depicts in this spirited defense of their relationship.
August 29, 2011
This brief, no-frills audio version of Gabrielsson’s memoir chronicles the life of the architect who lived with Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) for more than 30 years, but was cut out of his inheritance because the couple never married. Gabrielsson sets the record straight about Larsson’s childhood (which he spent almost entirely with his grandparents, not the father and estranged brother who now collect his royalties) and highlights the importance of the bestselling author’s political activism and fight against right-wing extremism. Although Cassandra Campbell’s narration is clear, crisp, and acerbic, she fails to express the author’s rage, particularly in the book’s later chapters and specifically in the climactic moments following Larsson’s unexpected death. A Seven Stories Press hardcover.